The fan favorite of the award season turns out to be a second-rate autobiographical drama stuck in flashback.
Nine-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill debut) lives in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, during the 1969 Civil War (Protestants smash the houses of Catholics living in the city). His friendly family (dad, mom, brother, grandmother and grandfather) supports him in every possible way, raises him in a favorable environment, but in the near future the hero will have to make a difficult choice: to leave the country or stay, despite the unrest and martial law.
Kenneth Branet probably desperately needed to close the gestalt, or better a few. To do this, he is in quarantine in the spring of 2020:
1) decided to remember and recreate his own childhood spent in Belfast;
2) made the personal delicately and hopefully public, so that viewers felt relief in an era of burning uncertainty;
3) the "Oscar" avoiding him took as a reference point. Branagh has been nominated five times, each in a different category (actor / director / short film director).
Alas, but the third point covers the other two, and commercialism peeps out of every frame - from the movie intro that looks like a tourist advertising to the notorious monologues about purpose, which viewers have heard in dozens even in the beginning decade.
What exactly did Brana do? Monotonous, for some reason bogged down in black and white and not at all interesting world, shown through the eyes of a child. After this, all children should reasonably be offended - after all, they are far from being as boring as the director seems or remembers. Even if we consider Belfast as an attempt to appeal to its own origins, the ill-fated and gloomy universality of its story, without the support of any fantasy, will overshadow all other aspects, squeeze the strength out of the audience, and appear as a prestigious half-tale about wasted time. At one of the press conferences (and there were many) Branet was asked whether he considered Alfonso Cuarona's “Roma” as an inspiration, the standard of screen memoirism, also black and white, also against the background of social clashes. Brana replied that he had not watched the film, but instead only remembered his own feelings. The result is the same: reminiscent, sugar-strained, pseudo-innovative, arrogant.
Hero Buddy is quite standard and only occasionally grabs attention (primarily due to the debut appearance of the perky Hill). The film lets him down, breeding stereotypes about children's thinking as something absent-minded, oblivious to the metamorphoses taking place within the family or country; erases his own imagination completely instead of nourishing the space with it. Branagh does not give his own alter ego the right to reflect on the outbreak of war or the plight of his parents (Jamie Dornan and Katrina Balfe), who were eventually forced to leave the city and start living in England. The main character wanders around, occasionally asks questions about love to his grandparents (Kieran Hinds and Judy Dench), receives lengthy wording in response, feels sympathy for a classmate, goes to the cinema to see musicals.
Hill is surrounded by a passable ensemble doing everything possible not to slip into a farce. Dornan, as a father, experiences severe tenderness and even sings at the end of the film, but all in vain, because he has already played his best role this year - in the comedy "Barb and Star" with Kristen Wiig, where he demonstrated the wildest vocal and comedic skills. Outlander alumnus Balfe is going to be a strong mother, cry on schedule, dance, growl at her son for tricks and at her husband for debts and adventures. Character actor Hinds dilutes his mostly dark role with cute philosophy, and only lady Judy Dench can handle traditional and natural acting magic. Two of the most successful and reliable episodes of the film are associated with her: returning with her grandson on the bus from the cinema, her heroine regrets the past and the inability to leave (for example, to Sri Lanka), and in the very finale, persistently, breaking her heart, blesses the family for a new life.
The tape is pulled by a chaotic montage, which surpasses only the "Bohemian Rhapsody". Because of him, "Belfast" rushes about a wounded beast, unable to catch its breath and remember about the relationship. But here they are forgotten, as well as about a well-thought-out script, for the sake of the author's own ego (it's funny, because all the latest attempts of the director Brana were extremely mediocre). The director dedicates the film to those who were lost by Northern Ireland during the period of turmoil and struggle for independence, and those who remained. The latter, probably, can be attributed to the audience who barely sat out, and even fell asleep. As far as sounding on the soundtrack Everlasting Love, the matter clearly did not come.
This article was sponsored by Anindya Dutta
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